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Lucas Digital Releases OpenEXR Format

Posted by chrisd on from the no-oscars-till-2005 dept.

frankie writes "Although George Lucas may have gone over to the dark side, at least some of his staff prefer Freedom and light. ILM has released OpenEXR, a graphics file format and related utilities, under a BSD-style license. Among other things, it supports the same 16 bit format used by Nvidia CG and the Geforce FX. OpenEXR runs on Linux, Jaguar, and Irix; other platforms are likely to work with a little help from the community."

5 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. So they would like you to write tools for them by jj_johny · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Get it folks. They designed a format and have some tools but have decided that they want to tap into the great pool of OSS talent. Who says this is not a dark side ploy?

    If all goes as planned all the great OSS software will be written to output this format in no time.

    1. Re:So they would like you to write tools for them by BFaucet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who cares?

      This means everyone (including you, me, and yes ILM) can benefit from this.

      The thing I'd be suspisious (sp?) of is them releasing this format so everyone will start using it, then releasing their tools (for gobs of cash) that'll be better than most other software using the format.

      --
      -Derick
    2. Re:So they would like you to write tools for them by JanneM · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Um, to me that sounds like a good plan for everyone. It's one of the points of open source that while you release your stuff, you can make money on your own extensive knowledge of said stuff. After all, since the format and basic tools are open you do not need to use their (hypothetical) proprietary versions if you do not want to.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    3. Re:So they would like you to write tools for them by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Get it folks. They designed a format and have some tools but have decided that they want to tap into the great pool of OSS talent. Who says this is not a dark side ploy?

      If all goes as planned all the great OSS software will be written to output this format in no time. "

      Geez I didn't realize Dale Gribble frequented Slashdot.

      There's a very simple reason why Lucas would release this format to the world: So it'll get included in other commercial packages. If Gimp, FilmGimp, and eventually Photoshop start supporting this format, then it's a win for everybody. This "They're doing it for greed!" paranoia is ignorant. Of course they're doing it for their benefit, they're paying for it by making it benefit everybody else. Damn them!

      Whatever. I'm a little tired of this attitude that every time a giant takes a step, he kills innocent children, then he laughs like Beavis.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  2. Umm this means nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The submitter doesn't even understand what ILS is offering, 'uses the same 16 bit format as...', no, it uses a special datatype that CG has, and FX will natively support (pssst CG is dead too, thanks to both MS and the OpenGL consortium endrunning them by implementing their own high level shader language)

    the only thing I see this library even offers is the 'capability to store' HDR' (High Definition Rendering) information, which offers better lighting techniques and edge detection.. *free* code to do the exact same thing is available at ATI, nVidia, SIGGRAPH, Usenet, any number of graphic books, etc.

    This story is useless. This code is useless. HDR relies on the rendering technique, not the 'file format'.